Due to some family stuff going on I needed to be home for Sunday and Monday and so couldn't really make it to Forth Fat this year, but I still had Friday and Monday booked off so managed to get in a ride on the Long Haul Trucker.
Was looking at possible rides and decided on Thursday to plan out a DIY Randonneur audax route for Saturday. Brian and I had talked about a few routes in the past and one was from his home in Dingwall up to mine. This sounded good and so I mapped out a route from Dingwall, over the Struei, Bonar Bridge, Lairg, Altnahara, Betty hill and through Thurso to home. Looked good on paper so I logged it and on Friday afternoon I caught a train down to Brians with my bike, arrived around 7pm to be greeted with a giant pasta dinner waiting. Cheers mate.
Brian said he would join me to the top of the Struei which was a couple of hours in so all sounded good. Forecast was good with a tail wind to boot.
Bikes were checked and readied before retiring for the night. My LHT was sorted and running with just my handlebar bag with glasses, wallet, phone etc and Carradice trunk bag on the rack with multitool, spare tube, jersey, jacket etc.
Up at 5.30 loaded with porridge and on the bikes for 6 am from up the top of Brians road. It was a great looking morning, sunny and with a bit of heat already coming through, very pleasant.
A steady climb up out of Dingwall before dropping down towards Evanton it was nice to start with a bit of sun on some really quiet roads, just that early morning feel to it. We then slowly climbed up for the next hour or so to the top of the Struei where Brian said he would ride down with me and maybe stop at Bonar Bridge where we would eat and then maybe he would go on to the west to Ledmore and the long loop home via Ullapool.
Bonar Bridge came pretty quickly after such a rapid descent and I said to Brian I would push on to Lairg and get breakfast there, Brian said he may as well join me as it wasn't that far and I couldn't blame him as the sky was looking black to the west and the wind was also coming straight from the west at that piont. Onto Lairg only to be dissapionted as the lovely cafe I had been holding out for was shut and by now after 3 hours I was pretty hungry. So there was nothing to it but raid the Spar shop, breakfast consisted of a sausage roll, an all day breakfast sandwich from the fridge, of which I am sure the egg and sausage was artificial, boking, but it was fuel and this was followed with 2 custard doughnut balls.
At this stage Brian decided that he had come this far that he may as well join me, which was great news and we were also a 1/4 of the way there. We then climbed steadily for the next hour or two and then had the good fortune to have a clear run down into Altnahara. This was enjoyable as last time when I was fully loaded with the tent and everything I rode up this climb from Altnahara. It must be about 5 klm long and clearly still lingers in my mind. I was barely turning a pedal and was cruising around 30 - 40 kph.
I don't usually stop at the hotel at Altnahara, don't find it welcoming, and seen as there is nothing else it makes it a long way from crask to Betty Hill between food or drinks. This time though the B&B on the Tongue side had a sign out saying Tea and coffee served. So it was we had a brilliant cup of tea sitting in these peoples conservatory on a very comfortable sofa. Very freindly stop.
Just out of town we turned right off the Tongue road and headed towards Betty Hill, skirting round the western side of the Loch keeping a good average pace going. We passed another tourer here who was not happy with the wind blowing in, or the road, or the towns, just not happy which was the opposite to us so after a brief chat we pushed on, there's no way he was going to make us that negative. Just shows though, he was young, had a flash bike, a really nice new looking Thorn with all the bells and whistles, like the new annodised red Rohloff hub on the back and SON on the front riding or walking in his case through a very beautiful part of the world and he was not anywhere near happy.
The road here, which was still singletrack as it had been since Lairg was now following the river and instead of the big climbs was more rolling hills with short sharp climbs.
We soon hit the north coast and turned right to enter Betty Hill, climbed the steep climb past the shop and headed down to the tourist information centre and the new cafe we had seen the signs for. Only we found it shut, f**king shut! really, Sunday afternoon on a Bank Holiday weekend on the route of the North Coast 500 and it's shut. Despite the signs evrywhere telling us we can't sit at their tables , we can't use their toilet, we can't park our bikes, we did use their tables and park our bikes, they sure as hell weren't using them. besides the fact they have little signs strategically placed all over the roads leading into town, this place is the tourist information centre. Soon I'll most likely see in the local paper about the people of Tongue complaining no one stops their anymore. You can probably tell by now that I was hungry and this place which i have stopped at three time has never been open just made us laugh, and rant obviously. I defiantely needed a snickers. So we sat at their seats and ate our bananas, custard doughnut balls, and mars bars before heading east up some pretty decent climbs. This section has a few long steep climbs that while we managed no bother which suprised me we did stop at Melvish further on at one of the hotels for a coffee. We had both ridden out this way recently when we went down to Forsinard so knew we should make it bake to mine no problem. We turned off the main road at Reay and followed the national cycle route through to Thurso and after stopping for a quick drink headed out for the last 3/4 of an hour ride to home. Stopped just before home and put my last banana on a stone wall as a offering to the cycle gods and wind gods for a very good day, then headed home.
Made it home inside the time in just on 13.05 hours for 202klm with a lot of elevation/climbing as well as a few good descents.
Both bikes, my Trucker and Brians Pompino had no issues with the same result for the riders. I must mention here that it was a big ride but for Brian, he was running a three speed Sturmy Archer hub, so while he must be crazy, he must be a crazy guy with legs of steel
Thanks Brian for coming all the way up with me.
Jamie
6.00am Tulloch Castle behind ready to start the ride.
Dornoch Bridge in background
Top of the Streui looking north west
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